No part of this invention was developed with the aid of any federally sponsored research and development.
Many large structures have parallel corridors and multiple floors or decks. People occupying these structures are vulnerable to fire, earthquakes, explosions or other forces because the exits may be hard to find in case of emergency. To safely evacuate the occupants, the corridors are usually provided with illuminated exit indicators that are placed in separate locations above the exit doors. However in large structures with many corridors or passageways, the exit indicators may be obscured by smoke and fire.
Since corridors and passageways vary in length, it would be desirable to provide a variable length emergency guidance system which can be easily and quickly installed and secured by a strong adhesive to a surface of the corridor. This suggests mounting an electrical guidance system on a rolled tape-like non-conductive support and using an adhesive to secure the guidance system to a surface of a corridor. But for this to work, the tape-like non-conductive support must be easily unrolled without stressing the electrical guidance system.
To overcome the problems inherent in the present practice, the inventor proposes to provide an easily installed emergency guidance system consisting of a tape-like non-conductive support having opposed surfaces. The tape-like non-conductive support would be flexible enough to be formed into a tape-like roll for easy transportation and installation. Small illuminated electrical exit indicators electrically and physically connected to each other are mounted in spaced relationship to each other on one surface of the tape-like non-conductive support to form a line of indicators leading to an exit when the tape-like support is unrolled. A strong adhesive is provided on the opposite surface of the tape-like non-conductive support so the adhesive surface of the tape-like non-conductive support can strongly adhere to walls of the corridors in the structure. The intent is that a guidance system of any length can be quickly installed on various corridors.
However if the tape-like non-conductive support is to be formed into a tape-like roll for easy transportation, storage, and installation, care is required because the electric circuits of the exit indicators which are mounted on one surface of the tape are comparatively fragile. If the exit indicators are subjected to stress caused by the strong adhesive when forcibly unrolling the tape-like support, the electrical connections may fail, affecting the guidance system.
These illuminated exit indicators are powered both by the main structure power source and by individual back up batteries connected to each illuminated exit indicator, so if there is a failure of the main structure power source, it will not affect the operation of the remaining illuminated exit indicators.
With this arrangement any number of exit indicators can be pre-installed on one surface of a tape-like non-conductive support and tested before the tape-like non-conductive support and exit indicators are installed on a corridor surface. As a result the cost of installation and testing the exit indicators is greatly reduced.
What is needed therefore, and comprises an important object of this invention is to provide a line of illuminated electrically and physically connected exit indicators for a structure where the exit indicators are mounted on an elongated tape-like non-conductive support in spaced relationship to each other and where each exit indicator contains its own light source and a back up battery, and can be connected to and powered by a main power source for the structure.
Another object of this invention is to provide exit indicators mounted on a tape-like non-conductive support where each exit indicator contains a light source and a back up battery.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide a number of electrically and physically connected exit indicators mounted in spaced relationship to each other on a tape-like non-conductive support having opposed surfaces wherein one surface of the tape-like non-conductive support is coated with a strong adhesive for attachment to a corridor surface and the exit indicators are mounted on the opposite surface and wherein the tape-like non-conductive support can be easily unrolled.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a number of electrically and physically connected exit indicators mounted in spaced relationship on one surface of a tape-like non-conductive support flexible enough to be formed into a roll, where each exit indicator has a light source, and the tape-like non-conductive support roll can be easily unrolled without stressing the electrical and physically connected electric circuits on the tape-like non-conductive support to form a line of illuminated lights.
Yet another object of this invention is to mount a number of exit indicators on one surface of a roll which has a strong adhesive for attachment to a corridor surface mounted on the opposite surface so when the tape-like non-conductive support roll is unrolled it forms a line of exit indicators which can be stuck by the adhesive to a surface of a corridor in the main structure.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a convenient and inexpensive way to secure a line of exit indicators to a surface of a corridor.